Extortion can take many forms, but one definition fits the recent settlement at Northwestern. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, extortion includes:
bring[ing] about or continu[ing] a strike, boycott or other collective unofficial action, if the property is not demanded or received for the benefit of the group in whose interest the actor purports to act.Northwestern president Michael Schill, who approved the settlement, holds a law degree from Yale University, so he surely knows the definition of extortion. Why did he and other NWU administrators submit to a shameful shakedown?
Northwestern caved into student protesters because the university is a Wizard of Oz outfit—no heart, no courage, and no brains. Schill and his administrative sidekicks don’t have the courage to call the cops on disruptive protesters or discipline students who promote antisemitism. They aren’t smart enough to realize that their appeasement will encourage future students to disrupt campus life if the university fails to abide by students’ ever-changing political demands. Nor are they smart enough to realize that their cowardice will demoralize Jewish students and alienate the university’s donors.
Finally, President Schill and his co-appeasers have no heart. They apparently don’t care that they’ve diminished the university’s academic freedom by allowing disgruntled students to dictate the hiring of faculty members based on ethnicity.
Northwestern hasn’t seen the last of the anti-Israel protesters. They’ll be back. Next time these antisemitic morons may demand that the university fire all its Jewish faculty members. What would President Schill, who is Jewish, say to that?
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| Gee, I'm scared! |
